Right to Disconnect

From 26 August 2025 (for small businesses being those with less than 15 employees) and 26 August 2024 for all other employers, employees will have the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact (or attempted contact) outside their working hours, unless doing so is unreasonable. This includes contact (or attempted contact) from an employer or a client, supplier or other person where that contact is work related.

When determining whether an employee’s refusal is unreasonable, the following factors will be considered:

·         the reason for the contact;

·         the manner in which the contact is made and its level of disruption to the employee;

·         the extent of compensation or additional payment the employee receives for being available to work during the period they are contacted or working extra hours outside their ordinary hours of work;

·         the employee’s role within the business and their level of responsibility; and

·         the employee’s personal circumstances, such as family or caregiving duties.

Awards may clarify how the right to disconnect works with respect to emergency roster changes, stand-by and call back clauses in the awards. If you have employees being paid to be on stand-by then it is unlikely that they can ignore calls.

Employers can still reach out after hours, however their employees may ultimately apply to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for stop orders. If an employer continues to contact the employee outside of hours in breach of those orders, they may face fines. I doubt there will be too many instances of employees applying to the FWC for these orders, so nothing really changes. 

Action

Ensure your employment contracts state that staff are required to work reasonable additional hours and that their contract includes a set-off clause.